Comic and Post Search

The God Revulsion

*Oh cool I just noticed as I was uploading this that this is the 200th comic! Neato!*

In the beginning, God created man. Man, in a fit of productivity, goes on to domesticate beasts and plants, create civilization, and invent alcohol and baseball. Not content with several thousand years of such things, man decides that it is time to do as his creator did. Unfortunately, early versions of man’s own attempt at life are creepy as hell.

It gets me thinking…maybe God wasn’t too happy with what he made either. Maybe it’s more subtle than sheer abject horror, maybe, like artists everywhere, God looks back on us and thinks “Man I can’t believe I did something like THAT back in the day.” and gives himself a little pat on the back for improving so much. “If only they could check out my new stuff,” he thinks, and shakes his head.

Have you seen the robots I’m talking about? They make me feel ill to look at.

Every time I read about people wanting to create human-like robots, I hear about how these dudes want to create something they can share the joy of life with. As if consciousness and the human experience were this wholly perfect thing that was nothing but goodness and love and compassion. It’s always about the wonderful qualities the human race possesses to these guys, but what they seem to forget is that the human race is as fucked up as it is beautiful. You go creating robots that are just like us and you’re going to create some really pleasant things and you’re also going to unleash robot murderers on the world. Think of how much more efficient robots are than humans at almost anything. Now think about a robot capable of and willing to murder human beings.

That’s one place where you WANT someone slacking off.

The strange thing about all this sharing the human condition thing is that the human condition isn’t easy. Life is definitely a beautiful thing but it comes with its ups and downs. Plenty of people on this planet are miserable and frightened and angry for most of their lives. Why, exactly, do we want to create things like us that would take part in that nonsense? Shouldn’t we maybe sort our own shit out first before we begin bringing brand new creatures into the mix? I guess it’s true what they say, misery does love company.

Maybe if we can create robots that are kind of like us and treat them horribly it will make our lives look better by comparison. Bummed about losing your job? Hey, at least you’re not one of those ROBOTS.

The fact of the matter is that these creations would have their own positives and negatives. Creating artificial intelligence and synthetic humanoids would really move the human race forward on its quest for godhood and its quest for science. Understanding robots could help us understand a lot more about ourselves and a lot more about consciousness. There’s a lot to look forward to there and I can sort of see the appeal and the passion of people working on these projects. It’s still baffling that they don’t seem to care much about the problems that might arise from it.

It’s like when a guy thinks he’s going to be a great dad and doesn’t stop to consider the cost and the effort it’s going to take. He just wants a kid, he doesn’t care how it’s going to work out.

Usually it doesn’t.

I mean, take a look at God. He’s ineffable and he created us, right? If a being of such perfection as God can’t magic up a creature that isn’t constantly on the brink of blowing itself up or, at the very least, descending into absolute chaos, what chance have we got for creating happy and compassionate life ourselves?

At least there is one up side to making progress on this issue: if we get those robots looking right, I can stop being so utterly creeped out by them. That would be something to look forward to.

My favourite thing about modern robots is that in movies and fiction and such, they perfect the robot, and then slowly make it look increasingly human. What actually happened was they made a basic sort of robot, then made it look as human as they could, found it to be horrifying, and began to work on making it completely human while simultaneously making it work better. (I speak as though the entire collection of robotics engineers, designers, mechanics, etc, the world over are just a single group of people with a hive mind).

Forgive me if I’ve pulled this idea out of nowhere, but aren’t humans supposed to be the Creator’s third try?
Golden race: Too perfect. Can’t have them living forever!
Silver race: Too vain! Thou shalt only worship meeeee!
Bronze race: A bit of dust, a bit of spit.. hey presto, Adam!

It isn’t out of nowhere! What you’re thinking of is the Greek (and sort of Roman…those thieving bastards) concept of the creation of man! The Greek deities tried three times to craft a race befitting their world and settled on us only after a lot of trials and tribulations. The flood myth in the Christian Bible is actually seen earlier in Greek myth (and even earlier elsewhere) where the gods are angered by the Race of Bronze that preceded the Greeks for their inability to live up to the Gods’ expectations. In a fit of rage, they send floods and save only one man, Deucalion, and his wife. They survive and become the progenitors of the race of man (crafted from the earth itself) from which we are all, supposedly, descended.

The funny thing here is that the whole situation is precipitated by the fact that the King of the race of Bronze, Lycaon, sacrifices a young boy as an offering to Zeus, a despicable act in the eyes of the gods and the Greeks. Later on you’ve got Abraham willing to sacrifice his own son to Yahweh as an act of faith and obedience. He doesn’t do it, but it’s just sort of interesting that the concept was so abhorrent to the Greeks of that time that it would require the complete annihilation of a race whereas the Christian and Jewish concept is a bit different. There’s still an element of disdain for the action itself, but the God requires the ability to do it if he says it must be done.

First time commenting, but I love that you pose thought-provoking questions after a ton of your comics.

Langdon Winner talked about the process of people using technology without considering the consequences in his essay “Technology as forms of life.” He termed it “technological somnambulism.” Just thought you might want to give it a read.

There is a vague hope that if we do make an AI, it will be better at thinking than a human and hence maybe less prone to human foibles. Maybe pride and greed and wrath are byproducts of our biology and evolutionary history and that a race made from scratch would not have these problems. I think the main worry about robots is not that they’ll have the usual set of human problems, but that they’ll all be perfectly rational sociopaths as opposed to the irrational sociopaths we currently have to deal with.

People tend not to think about their actions and that has and will always lead us into trouble.
Listening to NPR one morning and a woman was discussing her fear of human-like robots. She mentioned several times that people are trying to replace one another with robots because they are frequently disappointed in real humans. There is a growing appeal in having a companion that won’t fall short of your expectations.

Though you and I know that to be unreasonable and another exercise in not thinking through ideas.

Basically, the idea is that exponential growth in technology will, in a few decades, produce a computer so intelligent that human intelligence will be rendered obsolete. It is implied that this will be a wonderful day for everyone!

The similarity singularity has with your idea (for me at least) is the disappoint that I feel once I came to the conclusion that a superintelligent computer, like with the clever scientists of old, would be used by corporations and governments, to increase their power by creating new technology, products and insights. It would be a tool to further the powerful’s power, rather than to free the oppressed.

Rather than superintelligence, I think the world could do better by increasing its compassion, wisdom, self awareness etc – the softer, but more powerful, attributes. But you don’t hear scientists working on that!

creepy robots are the stuff of nightmares. O.O !
I think there is an inherent fear for our own creations, especialy the ones similar to us like the golems and automatons in mythology. Man’s reach exceeds his grasp, but cool things happen to those that risk a bit.

this makes me wonder, are you a fan of Issac Asimov?
my favorite line (probably somewhat misquoted) from The Robots of Dawn is about the relationship between the main character and his robot partner, “do not challenge our love”
it’s mega cheesy, and the first time i read it it made me laugh. I know better than to decide that any science fiction story can predict the future, and that the fears being brought up aren’t invalid, but i can’t help but get exited when i think about all the scientific work that’s being done. not because of some end result waiting over the horizon, but because i feel what’s really fueling the daily slow-moving slog of science is love.

on the other hand, that may be idealism and infatuation talking.

my point is, the development of a sex-bot powered mars shuttle should get *all* of the research funding.

Further more, you should check out Plato’s Myth of the Metals in The Republic. I think it is book III if I’m not mistaken. He refers to how the bronze are the common merchants, the silver are the auxiliaries that guard the city and the gold are the perfect guardians that lead the city. It is thought that he comes up with this in order to cause people to love their city and to fight for it as if it is their mother, which he claims that is where all men come from.

“I mean, take a look at God. He’s ineffable and he created us, right? If a being of such perfection as God can’t magic up a creature that isn’t constantly on the brink of blowing itself up or, at the very least, descending into absolute chaos, what chance have we got for creating happy and compassionate life ourselves?”

Our faults do not measure God, we ultimately have a choice in every decision. God created us, gave life, and loves us = but WE decide to be God and therefore rule with our own desires and not by what is right and what God planned.

I think sometimes the reason we source out to create robots or beings that are ‘human like’ is because we subconsciously want to be perfect. We want to see that want for perfection manifest itself into something we can feel and see.
By controlling this perfect being, we become ‘god’. We become powerful.

That power then used by the greedy could cause a world wide depression, where people loose jobs because a robot can work 24/7 and not get tired. Used for murder or robbery….or war. I dont think our society is ready for it. I dont think we ever will be. From what I see the world is going down hill to the point where we all will destroy each other over silly differences and with the help of AI….has anyone seen Terminator!?!?

Maybe i’m paranoid (Ok I am!) and really skeptic but I hope that i’m dead and gone when they unleash Replicators or demonic R2D2’s into the world.
:/